Formulation of Social Research Problem

“Formulation of social research problem means identifying a broad area of interest, narrowing it down to a precise issue, and stating what exactly the research aims to explore.”

A research problem is the issue that a researcher intends to investigate. It is simply a research topic. Generally a researcher may choose a broad topic depending on its importance or his interest in that area. However, the researcher needs to refine the topic and clearly state what is intended to be explored about the topic. This is called formulation of the research problem which identifying a broad area of interest, narrowing it down to a specific research topic, and devising the objectives.

The formulation of a research problem refers to the process of defining a researchable issue in a clear and systematic manner so that it becomes researchable. It involves refining a general research topic so that it becomes suitable for scientific investigation. Once formulated, the research problem provides a clear direction for conducting scientific inquiry.
The formulation of a research problem generally involves the following steps:

1. Identification of a broad research area
2. Division of the broad area into sub-areas
3. Selection of a specific sub-area
4. Formulation of research questions
5. Development of research objectives

A researcher always starts by identifying a broad research area depending on their interest, knowledge, and expertise. It is generally a large area that a researcher wants to investigate. For instance, a researcher in social science may select research areas such as poverty reduction, overpopulation, conflict resolution, crime control, unemployment, political instability, economic fluctuations, human rights, the justice system, familial issues, cultural practices, social and religious fragmentation, domestic violence, and so on.

These are broad research areas that cannot be treated directly as research topics. Each of these broad areas has many sub-areas, and all of those sub-areas cannot be covered in a single research study. However, each of the sub-areas within a larger area can be treated as a research topic.

Once a broad research area is selected, it is narrowed down into a specific topic that is researchable and manageable for the researcher. This involves dissecting the broad area into sub-areas and identifying one suitable sub-area for the research. For instance, a researcher selects the broad area “Domestic Violence.” This broad area can be split into the following sub-areas:

• Profile of families in which DV occurs
• Profile of victims of DV
• Profile of perpetrators
• Causes of DV
• Types of DV
• Impacts of DV on family
• Impacts of DV on children
• Services available to victims of DV
• Effectiveness of the services provided to victims of DV
• The extent of DV in a community

As noted earlier, it is not feasible for a researcher to study all the sub-areas due to limited resources such as time and financial resources. Similarly, one research study should specifically address one particular area so that it can be studied in its entirety. If a very broad area is selected, a single research study may not do justice in exploring every aspect of it. This is because the boundaries of a large area are not easy to identify in their entirety, and the researcher may unintentionally focus more on some aspects while neglecting others.

Hence, the researcher should select one of the sub-areas of the broad area for their research. This makes the research feasible and manageable. The choice of sub-area depends on the researcher’s interest, knowledge, and research expertise, as well as the general significance of the sub-areas.

After selecting a specific sub-area, the researcher must consider what needs to be explored within it. In other words, the researcher must raise questions related to the chosen sub-area that need to be answered through research. Many research questions can be generated; however, only the most important and relevant ones should be selected. The total number of selected questions depends on the nature of the topic, which ultimately determines the overall length (or size) of the research thesis.
Let us suppose the researcher selects one sub-area (from the list above), “Causes of Domestic Violence.” The following questions may be raised about this area:

1. How does illiteracy influence DV?
2. Is poverty responsible for DV?
3. How do long-held traditions lead to DV?
4. What are the socio-cultural causes of DV?

Similarly, for the sub-area “Impacts of Domestic Violence on Children,” the following questions can be raised:

1. What is the impact of DV on the emotional development of a child?
2. How does DV affect a child’s academic performance?
3. What are the effects of DV on a child's physical health?
4. How does DV influence the social behavior of children?

Then, the researcher formulates the objectives of the research, which specify what is intended to be explored. These objectives stem from the research questions. The difference between research questions and objectives lies in the way they are written. Research questions are interrogative sentences, whereas objectives are action- or aim-oriented statements that use words such as to explore, to investigate, to examine, and to find out. Therefore, a simple way to write objectives is to transform research questions into action-oriented statements.

For instance, the research questions for “Causes of Domestic Violence” can be transformed into the following objectives:

• To examine the influence of illiteracy on DV
• To explore the impact of poverty on DV
• To understand how long-held traditions lead to DV
• To investigate the socio-cultural causes of DV

As another example, the research questions for “Impacts of Domestic Violence on Children” can be transformed into the following objectives:

• To understand the impact of DV on the emotional development of a child
• To examine the influence of DV on a child’s academic performance
• To identify the effects of DV on a child’s physical health
• To explore the impact of DV on a child’s social behavior

In research reports or theses, research questions and objectives are presented either as two separate sections or as one combined section under a heading such as “Research Aims and Questions.” When written as separate sections, differences may appear in their formats, and the objectives may not be exact transformations of the questions. There are reasons for this.

First, the above discussion focuses only on the formulation of the research problem, which is the first step of the research process. At this stage, the primary aim is not to draft final questions and objectives for inclusion in the thesis. While these may later be included, the main purpose at this stage is to define the boundaries of the topic through these questions and objectives. This helps refine the topic into one that is both researchable and worth researching.

Second, while writing a detailed research design or the thesis itself, the researcher may adopt a different writing style for questions and objectives. Research questions may combine two or more aspects of the research to be explored, whereas each research objective typically focuses on a single aspect. Therefore, a researcher may combine multiple aspects into one question but still express each aspect separately in the objectives.